Archiving the United Kingdom’s Church History

Theology on the Web’s primary function has always been to provide a comprehensive and free online theological library for those without access to physical books around the world. However, an unexpected benefit of digitising over 30,000 theological articles has made the Biblical Studies website into an official archive of British church history.

Over the last few years I have been approached, first by the Baptist Historical Society, then by the Methodists and, this month, by the United Reformed Church to digitise and host their journals. This material has proved extremely popular with church historians – as you would expect – but also with those tracing their ancestry, as the articles often contain a wealth of biographical information.